Habanero Cream Puff Puts Desert Heat In Your Dessert Treat

If you're a Japanese maker of mouth-searing habanero pepper flavored foodstuffs and you want to expand your product line, what do yo do? Answer: find out what people like to eat and habanero-ize it.

That's what Kyoto Habanero has done - how else to explain their Habanero Cream Puff? Called "shu cream" in Japan, cream puffs are a popular dessert and/or snack consisting of light & flaky pastry stuffed with rich custard cream.

They're as delicious as they sound, but that's not enough for Kyoto Habanero... because anything and everything tastes better when infused with the searing heat of the world's hottest pepper!

Kyoto Habanero formulates their Habaneroshu in an interesting way that may seem more complex to produce yet should result in a more satisfying taste experience. Instead of simply mixing habanero extract into the semi-liquid custard cream, the custard is left as is and only the pastry is spiced up with the potent peppers.

When eaten, the spiciness of the pastry and the sweetness of filling should retain their taste and the contrast between them should be much more noticeable.

Packed in single-serve plastic bags and selling for 120 yen (about $1.25) each, the "Habaneroshu" contain 0.3 percent real habanero pepper - doesn't sound like much but pepper aficionados have a healthy respect for the habanero's hefty hit of heat.

An additional selling point is that the habanero peppers are grown in Kameoka, a farming town near Kyoto. Habaneroshu are one of 5 specialty habanero pepper products which use peppers grown in Kameoka (see cute mascot character above) and distributed through Family Mart convenience stores in Japan from August 11, 2009. Get 'em while they're, er, hot! (via Gigazine)

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